The “Cathedral of Counter-Strike” is ready for the world’s largest independent Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournament to take place in Cologne, Germany. 2018 marks the fourth year in a row that the LANXESS arena will be welcoming players, talents and fans for a whole weekend of pure Counter-Strike action from July 6 at ESL One Cologne 2018. ESL is proud to announce that the city’s biggest sports venue is once again officially sold out of tickets for the record-shattering event. Over 15,000 live spectators will watch the world’s top CS:GO teams battle it out for a share of the US$ 300,000 prize pool on each of the three main event days .

On top of the prize pool comes another potential big win for one of the teams: For the first time in history, the Intel® Grand Slam (IGS) has reached the point where a team can complete the $1,000,000 obstacle course. The international top team FaZe Clan is currently one tournament victory away from winning four out of ten IGS-eligible events, which would make them the very first winners of the massive bonus payout.

The event will be broadcast on multiple online and linear platforms with the English mainstream being broadcasted on Facebook. Last year, more than 13 million hours of content have been consumed while generating 62 sessions both online and digital.

“Home is where your heart is and Cologne is the beating heart of CS:GO”, said Ulrich Schulze, SVP of Product at ESL. “It’s incredible how far we’ve come with ESL One Cologne thinking back to the first edition back in 2014 at gamescom. We are incredibly excited to see so many CS:GO fans from all over the world and we are humbled to represent the global Counter-Strike community here in our hometown once again. The crowd at LANXESS arena never disappoints and we can’t wait to deliver another memorable esports weekend for all visitors on-site and the millions watching online. ”

For more information about the event please visit the official ESL One Cologne 2018 website and have a look at the schedule of the event. Make sure to follow ESL CS on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest updates and check out the official announcement trailer here.